Unquiet Night
by Fatiguesdualism
Summary: After the Suicide Mission, Shepard travels to Illium - and has a dream. Nothing really explicit. Tried to write this without giving too many identifying attributes to Shepard (hence both Shepard tags)


My head flung itself backwards without waiting for my brain's decision and every, single, one, of the muscles in my body locked rigid. The world around me flashed away; sight, hearing, smell, they all disappeared – overwhelmed by sensation. I may have even screamed at the top of my lungs, but I'm not even sure my diaphragm was still capable of pushing the air out. I _am_ sure my heart decided to stop working for a second or two, though – before my overwhelmed brain thought that was a bad idea and told it to get back to work. I don't know how long it took for my nervous system to recover, but when it finally did it was obvious time had passed. Obvious, because a gorgeously dishevelled Miranda Lawson was smiling smugly at me from the other half of the bed; whereas the last time I had seen her she had been enthusiastically…well she had been _very_ enthusiastic and naked. Happily, she was still naked.

I realised I was sprawled on my back and tried to roll towards the beautiful, raven-haired, brunette. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was…well…My body decided that moving was a great idea _in_ _principle_, but that it would have to take it into consideration and would get back to me with its decision – later; definitely sometime later. The best I could manage was to swallow and try to work some moisture back into my mouth. Just doing that seemed to take an inordinate amount of effort.

Miranda reached out, lifted my outstretched hand and brought it up to her lips. Her kiss, delivered to the palm of my hand, brought a smile to my lips – and caused Miranda to chuckle. "Shh," she soothed, "relax." Miranda moved, an entrancing sight even when she was fully clothed, it was even more enthralling when she was naked, and _the most_ important thing in the universe when she was getting closer to me with _that_ smile dancing across her lips.

A part of me wanted to rise from my boneless, undignified, utterly wanton, sprawl and meet her. Another part of me wanted to watch Miranda's approach for as long as I could – preferably for however much time was left in the universe; in the end I made a command decision and compromised. I watched as Miranda well…prowled…closer – then at the last second made a supreme effort and met her descending lips with my own. The kiss was gentle, tender – I just didn't have the strength left to put anything else into it; and after a few seconds my head dropped back down to the pillows.

"Did I wear you out?" there was a playful undercurrent in her voice as she moved and whispered into my ear, "I warned you." Her face moved back above mine and I could see those devastatingly, blue eyes again – eyes that could gaze into mine and knew me, totally and completely. I had to close my eyes for a second and fight back the tears that threatened to spill. Miranda's eyes weren't those eyes – _those _eyes had grown cold and had turned away from me, preferring a mad crusade against a shadowy behemoth. Miranda kissed me again, languidly and without demand. It was perfect – it banished the memory of those other eyes.

I sighed when Miranda finally pulled away from our kiss, but she wasn't leaving me alone on her bed. Instead she gently helped me to roll onto my side and pressed herself up against my back. Then her arm came over my flank and she gently started trailing her fingers across my skin. "Miri," I sighed in exhausted protest.

"Shh," her mouth was pressed against the nape of my neck and the play of her breath sent a pleasant shiver running down my spine. "Everything's fine." the motion of her lips caused me to shift, to try and press myself closer to the wonderful woman behind me; to meet a pair of eyes that stared at me from beyond the bed in pained despair.

Liara knelt on the floor. Her arms were pulled tight behind her and then bound to her ankles, whilst an uncomfortable looking gag nestled in her mouth, forcing her lips wide apart.

"She can't hurt you now," Miranda's voice gently reassured me.

Liara's eyes widened.

"Everything's fine," Miranda breathed into my ear as the knife in her hand slid smoothly between my ribs, "I've got you."

* * *

I woke up, instinctively reaching for the space where I had felt the knife slide into me. Miranda started to stir as my arms tightened around her. "Shh," I whispered and gently kissed her. "Everything's fine," I lied, "go back to sleep." The beautiful Cerberus operative settled again, I wasn't even sure if she had fully woken – but she trusted me even so. I looked at her in the flickering blue light that haunted my cabin. I'd made my decision, I trusted her, I loved her – I had even agreed with her plan to save the Collectors' Base for study. Liara had made her choice and I had made mine.

I closed my eyes and tried to get back to sleep. Tomorrow we would arrive at Illium and I intended to give Liara the information Cerberus had uncovered about the Shadow Broker. I owed her that much – at least.


End file.
